The Osceola times., 1887-07-16
ABOUT NITROGEN
4 Popular Treatise ON Its Rel,,,.
Other Elements and

h.t
nitrogen. its value as plant fooS S'Ou %
its behavior in the soil. To fun, '
preciate its importance, some ts.sr
edge OF it, its properties and Ia r''
tons with other elements and u ~
is required. The substance exis,'
nature as a gas forming nearly ,a
fifths of the bulk of the atmospber. 'u'
remainder (twenty-one per cent \ Last u'
oxygen; two being mixed and no, lug
bined. And just here it miyhtLoI
teres ting to note that while in miv,n'
simply these two gasses exist in L.'
mony for the existence and good q, IN
organic life; if they were 10 eomlia
suddenly there would be an inst,
end to all living things, and plants ,Ha
animals would instantly die, for n.
atmosphere would become most 0a'
rosive and deadly gas, which we kno~
as nitric acid, or when, dissolved
water, commonly as aquaforts.
Nitrogen was so named by the earl,
chemists, as the generator of nitre i
was discovered in l772 by the chem,
Rutherford, but up to the present Tim,
its relations to the vegetable and an,
nal life are not clearly understood !,
full. 1t is known that it forms lara.
portion of all organic substances and
constitutes about one-sixth part Of III.
tissues of animal structures. OF necs,.
sity it must also form a large par, Of |
vegetable matter upon which animal.
live and from which the nitrogen =.
their tissues is derived. OF yegctsb.
albumen, fibrin, legumin and other nj.
trogenous elements of plants, nitrogen
constitutes about the same proportion
as of animal tissue; hence question:
which arise regarding the manner in
which this nitrogen is appropriated BY
plants and the sources from which nk
derived become of extreme interestb
farmers.
Although nitrogen constitutes 40
large a portion (79 per cent? of the at
mosphere it is of itself wholly inert
and has no direct action or affinity
with any other substance. 1t simp,
serves to dilute the oxygen of the at
mosphere and render the air subservient
to the purpose of organic life by pro
portionately lesscning the activityd
the oxygen. 1t does not support con,
bustion or respiration, and fire and LIE
are equally extingushed in it, not from
any noxious property, but from mer
uselessness, as is the ease in vacuum
from which air is wholly absent lth
transparent, without taste, odor
color, and water dissolves about q per
cent. of it by bulk or volume. 1t is not
found in any mineral or inorganic for
nation except coal, and in this SUD
stance has been derived through the
vegetable origin of it. II can be easily
separated in oxygen, and procured pure
by the simple process of burning phos
phorus in small floating capsule on
water under bell glass; ds
, oxygen of the air unites with the
phosphorus, forming white vapors Of
phosphoric acid, which are quickly ab-
sorbed by the water, leaving the nitro
gen free. The space in the glass form.
erly occupied by the oxygen is filled
by the rising of the water in it. Its
atomic weight and combining quality
is ii. while oxygen is l6, and hydro.
gen is /. Thus. when it CONTINUES
with hydrogen, taking 3 parts OF it to
l of itself, it forms one part of ammo
mia weighing II times rs much, par,
of hydrogen and many times as much
, as l part of nitrogen. Its chemical
I symbol is n. While alone nitrogen il
thus inert; when combined with other
elements it becomes most surprs
ingly active. Thus, when combined
with hydrogen, another odorles
and tasteless gas, it becomes the
r pungent gas or vapor we know as am
monia, which is so corrosive that itk
, destructive of leather and carriage var
nish in stables, where il abounds TOO
often. Oxygen is another odoress
tasteless, gas, but when nitrogen h
combined with it the most intensely
,, sour and corrosive gas is formed which
, when dissolved in water. forms The
/ ordinary nitric acid and dissolves cop
per, silver, lime ana almost all other
substances. When combined with an
equal part of oxygen it forms the pe
, culiar gas known as laughing gas OF
nitrous oxide, which is used BY den
| ap,netbntio apI tu almost ~
active supporter of combustion
, oxygen. With two parts of oxygen u
D produces nitric oxide which extln'
gushes fire and is poisonous when
breathed. With five parts of oxygen
it produces the common nitric aca
, which dissolvcs and combines wl'a
, almost all metals and minerals to form
. what are known as nitrate OF silver I"
copper, of soda, of potash, otherwls
called saltpeter, and many other com
, pounds.
, II is in this form that nitrogen
e supposed to enter into the roots Oh
plants and furnish the food required 70
form the various heterogeneous sue
, stances which are so interesting anu
! important to the farmer And when
, we reach this point we come to VI.
confines of the great unknown WORK |"
nature into which we see rs 1t wen
through a glass darkly, and which We W
may wander through a mazy labyrlnn
guided only by the slcnderest threau'
of reason. logic and analogy and ever
these guiding lines are so tangled suu